Multimodal dialogue systems provide multiple modalities in the form of speech, mouse clicking, drawing or touch that can enhance human-computer interaction. However, one of the drawbacks of the existing multimodal systems is that they are highly domain-specific and they do not allow information to be shared across different providers. In this paper, we propose a semantic multimodal system, call...

The operation of quick service restaurants (QSR) is a highly engineered process, with many factors coming into play: physical layout, equipment availability, and worker staffing levels, positioning, and priorities. The Restaurant Modeling Studio (RMS) provides an analysis platform for investigating the impacts of these factors on critical performance metrics, especially speed of service and ser...

Restaurant recommendation systems are capable of recommending restaurants based on various aspects such as location, facilities and price range. There exists some research that implements restaurant recommendation systems, as well as some famous online recommendation systems such as Yelp. However, automatically rating individual food items of a restaurant based on online customer reviews is an ...

Restaurants in the United States are regularly inspected by health departments, but few data exist regarding the effect of restaurant inspections on food safety. We examined statewide inspection records from January 1993 through April 2000. Data were available from 167,574 restaurant inspections. From 1993 to 2000, mean scores rose steadily from 80.2 to 83.8. Mean inspection scores of individua...

OBJECTIVE Large portion sizes in restaurants have been identified as a public health risk. The purpose of the present study was to determine whether customers in two different food-service operator segments (non-commercial worksite cafeteria and commercial upscale restaurant) would select reduced-portion menu items and the impact of selecting reduced-portion menu items on energy and nutrient in...

This qualitative study captured the opinions of the owners and managers of smoke-free restaurants. The purpose of this study, initiated by local citizens who were members of a group called Healthy Alamance, was to identify the motivations and experiences of restaurant owners and managers who had committed to smoke-free indoor environments. Telephone interviews were attempted with all 80 owners/...

OBJECTIVE Given the link between eating out, poor diets, and obesity, we assessed the availability of point-of-purchase nutrition information at the largest fast-food restaurant in the U.S., McDonald's. METHOD In August 2004, we visited 29 of 33 (88%) of the McDonald's outlets in Washington, DC and visually inspected the premises, as well as asked cashiers or restaurant managers whether they ...

Restaurant inspection reports are an important source of information for the public to evaluate food safety practices at restaurants. This study examined the effect of information source and message style on consumer responses to restaurant inspection reports. The study employed a three (Information source: local health department, newspaper or consumer blog) x three (Message style: numeric, le...

On July 13, 2016, Clark County (Washington) Public Health (CCPH) received a report of diarrheal illness in four of seven members of a single party who dined at a local restaurant on July 6, 2016. The report was received through an online/telephone system for reporting food service-associated illness complaints. Members of the five households in the party reported that their only shared exposure...